Descriptive Note:

Final rept. 1 Jun 1996-30 Jun 1999

Corporate Author:

NORTH CAROLINA UNIV AT CHAPEL HILL

Personal Author(s):

Report Date:

1999-06-01

Pagination or Media Count:

194.0

Abstract:

During the period of this grant we have explored the use of monoenergetic x-rays to image samples of real breast tissue comparing DEI, monoenergetic radiographs and conventional mammography. We have demonstrated that the DEI images show structures in better detail than seen with conventional x-ray image systems, and in some cases show detail that was not visualized with the conventional system. We have been able to acquire additional tissue sample images that will provide the data to determine the parameter values for optimal image acquisition. The Monte Carlo simulation program we have developed is a powerful tool which can be used to determine the contrast sensitivity of the imaging system to various parameters, such as beam energy or tumor density. Comparisons between real digital images and Monte Carlo based simulations showed that the effects of scatter conventional scatter, not diffraction or refraction effects in the synchrotron images are considerably smaller than the effects of the system modulation transfer function and can be safely ignored.